MySQL Connector/ODBC 5.0.5 BETA Has Been Released

[Mark Matthews]

Hello ODBC Users,

Connector/ODBC v5.0.5 (the first BETA release) has been released. You no longer need to have Connector/ODBC 3.51 installed (however this release can co-exist with a 3.51 installation), as this version now uses its own
setup library unlike prior ALPHA releases.

It is availble for download at
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/5.0.html

Connector/ODBC 5.0 is meant to be used with MySQL-5.0 and newer, as it
relies on information available in INFORMATION_SCHEMA when fulfilling
requests for metadata.

License
-------

MySQL Connector/ODBC is licensed under the GPL or a commercial license
from MySQL AB.

If you have licensed this product under the GPL, please see the COPYING
file for more information.

There are special exceptions to the terms and conditions of the GPL
as it is applied to this software. View the full text of the
exception in file LICENSE.exceptions in the directory of this
software distribution.

If you have licensed this product under a commercial license from
MySQL AB, please see the file "MySQLEULA.txt" that comes with this
distribution for the terms of the license.

Installation
------------

1) Unzip the archive containing Connector/ODBC 5.0 (if you're reading
this file from the archive, then you've already done this).

2) From a shell and in the base subdirectory of the Connector/ODBC 5.0
directory created when you unzipped the archive, do the following:

C:...> install 0

(if you're upgrading from the previous Connector/ODBC 5.0 release,
instead run "Upgrade.bat")

This should register the driver and copy the driver to
%SystemRoot%\System32

Current State of Implementation
-------------------------------
This driver is meant to be used with MySQL-5.0 and newer, as it relies
on information available in INFORMATION_SCHEMA when fulfilling requests
for metadata.

The driver is feature complete, and has started going through internal
testing. At this time it is known to be able to link tables in Microsoft
Access and perform some ADO-related functionality. Our goals for
internal testing are to cover the set of applications that are most used
with MySQL and ODBC, including Microsoft Office applications (including
Access), Crystal Reports, ADO and OleDB.

With this release we're asking the user community to give detailed
feedback on which applications do not work with the driver, as we don't
have access to all possible combinations of MDAC, Microsoft Office service pack and hotfix combinations for our own internal testing. We're also especially interested in results from testing in-house or commercial applications that don't have widespread availability.


Reporting Bugs with this Release
--------------------------------
Please report bugs you find with this release at http://bugs.mysql.com/

For more expedient processing of your Connector/ODBC 5.0 bugs, please
make sure to record the version number with a “5.0” in it so that we
find them quicker when putting together fix lists.

Please include driver and driver-manager traces with your bug reports,
as this helps us isolate the bug much quicker. If your application works
with Connector/ODBC 3.51 but not 5.0, please enclose driver and driver
manager traces from 3.51 as well.

It is also very helpful if you include which version of MDAC and
associated DLLs you are using. Microsoft's MDAC version checker makes
this relatively straightforward. Instructions for installing and running
the MDAC version checker are at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301202


Roadmap for Future Releases
---------------------------
Future beta releases will introduce new platforms (the code is written
in a cross-platform manner, we're just working out some small issues,
starting with Linux and then progressing to other Unix platforms).

We also include a graphical MSI-based installer in a future beta release
for the Microsoft Windows platform.

This beta does have some debug-related code, and is not entirely
optimized (it is sometimes "chattier" with the database server than 3.51
for example), as the first goal was to have something that is written
exactly-to-spec for the ODBC API specification, and "back off" where
testing shows that we can (or need to, in the case with some
applications). Future releases will be more performance-oriented than
the first few beta releases.

Regards,

-Mark
--
Mark Matthews
MySQL AB, Software Development Manager - Connectivity
www.mysql.com

Mark Matthews
Consulting Member Technical Staff - MySQL Enterprise Tools
Oracle
http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/monitor.html



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2006 11:24PM by Edwin DeSouza.